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We revisit the problem of redesigning the Master in Business Administration (MBA) program, curriculum, and pedagogy, focusing on understanding and seeking to tame its “wicked problems,” as an intrinsic part and challenge of the MBA program venture, and to render it more realistic and relevant to address major problems and their consequences. We briefly review the theory of wicked problems and methods of dealing with their consequences from multiple perspectives. Most characterization of problems classifies them as simple (problems that have known formulations and solutions), complex (where formulations are known but not their resolutions), unstructured problems (where formulations are unknown, but solutions are estimated), and “wicked” (where both problem formulations and their resolutions are unknown but eventually partially tamable). Uncertainty, unpredictability, randomness, and ambiguity increase from simple to complex to unstructured to wicked problems. A redesigned MBA program should therefore address them effectively through the four semesters in two years. Most of these problems are real and affect life and economies, and hence, business schools cannot but incorporate them into their critical, ethical, and moral thinking.

Team cognition research continues to evolve as the need for understanding and improving complex problem solving itself grows. Complex problem solving requires members to engage in a number of complicated collaborative processes to generate solutions. This chapter illustrates how the Macrocognition in Teams model, developed to guide research on these processes, can be utilized to propose how intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) could be developed to train collaborative problem solving. Metacognitive prompting, based upon macrocognitive processes, was offered as an intervention to scaffold learning these complex processes. Our objective is to provide a theoretically grounded approach for linking intelligent tutoring research and development with team cognition. In this way, team members are more likely to learn how to identify and integrate relevant knowledge, as well as plan, monitor, and reflect on their problem-solving performance as it evolves. We argue that ITSs that utilize metacognitive prompting that promotes team planning during the preparation stage, team knowledge building during the execution stage, and team reflexivity and team knowledge sharing interventions during the reflection stage can improve collaborative problem solving.

In this chapter, the author delves deeper into adaptive and sustainability challenges, specifically discussing the roles of management and leadership in addressing these problems. Both responsible leadership and management are essential for tackling sustainability challenges. Leadership focuses on establishing a vision and inspiring others to attain it, while management is concerned with devising and executing strategies to realize that vision. Addressing wicked problems necessitates collaboration, engagement and innovative solutions, involving both leadership and management. To effectively conquer sustainability challenges, organizations must embrace a more holistic and sustainable approach to management and leadership. This might include collaborating with stakeholders to discover innovative solutions that prioritize sustainability and social responsibility. Resolving wicked problems calls for a distinct management and leadership approach that is cooperative, systemic, and sustainable.

An important question facing business scholars is whether and how organizations may best adapt their investments, resource profiles, and strategies to the demands of their particular environments. While a broad literature describes organizational design principles that may assist in this regard, more recent work builds on Kauffman's (1993) NK model of biological evolution to explore how selection mechanisms and adaptive principles promote firms' exploitation and exploration efforts. This research stream has made contributions regarding the importance and efficacy of various internal adaptive factors in particular environmental settings. For instance, Levinthal (1997) shows that, despite extensive adaptation efforts, the influence of imprinting persists in complex environments with many local peaks. Rivkin (2000) demonstrates that NK complexity degrades the efficacy of search, compelling imitators to rely on search heuristics rather than adaptation via local learning. Rivkin and Siggelkow (2003) explore the tradeoffs between exploration and stability, and describe how particular organizational attributes, such as vertical hierarchy and group- or firm-level incentive systems, influence the flow of information throughout the organization. These as well as other contributions have added precision to the conceptualization of environments and sharpened understanding of organization by describing precisely how interdependencies across investment choices and/or resource profiles affect adaptation efforts.

Common literature review methods such as systematic review and narrative review are poorly suited to the investigation of complex management phenomena. Systematic reviews are highly driven by protocol and procedure, and are oft-criticized as reductive and poorly equipped to examine the interaction between phenomena and context, nonlinear processes, and empirical outcomes that are less predictable. Narrative reviews, on the other hand, are pluralistic and iterative and thus better suited to descriptions of the complex and unpredictable; however, they tend to lack methodological transparency, trustworthiness, and pragmatism in application. The “realist synthesis” approach to literature review can be seen as the middle-ground between these two common methods, offering both methodological rigor alongside flexibility and nuance. Realist synthesis takes an explanatory frame, with a focus on unearthing the theorized causal mechanisms at play beneath a phenomenon of interest.

Health care organizations function in multidimensional environments, and their organizational cultures are complex and demanding. Expectations for health care services are high: patients want the most effective and newest possible treatments, politicians demand accountable service production, and health care professionals require motivating and challenging work environments. All these goals and objectives, for example, can be at the root of wicked problems in health care management. Thus, this chapter aims to explore the wickedness of health care management through an analysis of Finnish and Swedish health care reforms. The aim of these reforms is to solve the problems encountered in health care systems and organizations. The concept of a ‘wicked issue’ can shortly be described as a problem that is difficult to identify and solve. The reasoning behind using the concept of wicked issue as a method for analysis here is the hypothesis that the concept helps to explain and understand the social complexity involved in health care management.

Society is increasingly confronted with a range of complex social problems that need to be addressed using a research process based on collaboration between stakeholders from both science and society and the integration of knowledge from different disciplines. This type of interdisciplinary research is more complex than mono disciplinary research and requires skills at the cognitive, inter-personal, and intra-personal levels. We present the experiences with an interdisciplinary master’s program. The research question we address is what educational strategy prepares students for interdisciplinary research on complex social problems? Since tasks which are too complex can frustrate students and create resistance, we argue for a gradual approach to inquiry-based learning. We interviewed both students and lecturers, and included curricula evaluations. We found that students can be trained in interdisciplinary research based on a gradual approach to open inquiry and we found a relationship between the complexity of cognitive tasks and the amount of learning in other domains. We argue that when students are challenged at the right level with appropriate guidance, the learning domains will reinforce each other. To keep students optimally challenged, it is crucial that the teachers adjust their role while directing students from structured inquiry towards open inquiry.

This chapter addresses two identified weaknesses in entrepreneurial ecosystem studies: there is a lack of focus on the relationships between the components of entrepreneurial ecosystems and little understanding of the underlying processes that determine how entrepreneurial ecosystems change over time. Both entrepreneurial ecosystems and solutions ecosystems from social entrepreneurship studies are place-based complex adaptive systems that are emergent in nature. While neither of these ecosystem types can be controlled, they can be influenced and guided to follow a direction by designing conditions for emergence and transitions. In this chapter, the proposition that an online tool, that is used to strengthen solution ecosystems and support their emergence and transition, could also be used to strengthen entrepreneurial ecosystems and guide their emergence and transition is examined. Two cases are used to investigate this proposition: a food security solution ecosystem case study that demonstrates how the online tool is used for solution ecosystems, and an impact economy entrepreneurial ecosystem case study that highlights how the online tool could be used for an entrepreneurial ecosystem. It is demonstrated in this chapter that the online tool can be used to address the current weaknesses of entrepreneurial ecosystem studies. In addition, it is suggested that by combining solution ecosystems with an impact economy entrepreneurial ecosystem, the online tool can be used to support the creation of conditions for social entrepreneurial places to emerge that are capable of addressing the most pressing problems that places face including the sustainable development goals.

In this chapter, the discussion revolves around the necessity for responsible management within the context of a complex environment. The 21st century has brought forth numerous challenges for businesses and organizations globally. The rise of VUCA has made it increasingly difficult for companies to achieve success using traditional management approaches. Addressing adaptive challenges and wicked problems, which are sustainability issues that are hard to define and even harder to solve, has become a significant concern for today's enterprises. To tackle these challenges, a shift in management and leadership paradigms is needed, particularly a shift from ego-centric to eco-centric management styles and from boss-centric to self-management approaches. Embracing a more responsible and sustainable management strategy is essential for addressing adaptive challenges. This could involve integrating Taoist principles like compassion, conservation and compliance into management practices and collaborating with stakeholders to devise innovative solutions to tackle adaptive challenges and wicked problems.